"
And then Tremayne's dislike of the man betrayed him into his
deplorable phrase.
"At the present time Portugal is in urgent need of her famous
swordsmen to go against the French and not to increase the
disorders at home."
A silence complete and ominous followed the rash words, and Samoval,
white to the lips, pondered the imperturbable captain with a baleful
eye.
"I think," he said at last, speaking slowly and softly, and picking
his words with care, "I think that is innuendo. I should be
relieved, Captain Tremayne, to hear you say that it is not."
Tremayne was prompt to give him the assurance. "No innuendo at all.
A plain statement of fact."
"The innuendo I suggested lay in the application of the phrase. Do
you make it personal to myself?"
"Of course not," said Sir Terence, cutting in and speaking sharply.
"What an assumption!"
"I am asking Captain Tremayne," the Count insisted, with grim
firmness, notwithstanding his deferential smile to Sir Terence.
"I spoke quite generally, sir," Tremayne assured him, partly under
the suasion of Sir Terence's interposition, partly out of
consideration for the ladies, who were looking scared. "Of course,
if you choose to take it to yourself, sir, that is a matter for your
own discretion.
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